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Friday, May 1, 2015

We happily spent a few hours beneath the cherry blossoms this week. The garden is just bursting with life and many of the spring ephemerals are in their fleeting, gorgeous prime.

I'm at the sunlit studio on this beautiful afternoon wrapping up a few projects and preparing for my open studio days this weekend (please come! Saturday and Sunday, noon-5pm). There will be cold-brewed Rose Geranium Jade Oolong, and plenty of gift ideas for the mamas in your life. If you're shopping online, today is the last day to place your order for Mother's Day delivery.

Sending you my best wishes on this first day of May. Beltane, in the Celtic tradition, is a celebration of life-force, transformation and renewal. And with that, the abundance of this season begins!

Friday, April 3, 2015

Finally the time feels right. The precise moment where the spirit of one season gives way to the next isn't always neatly aligned with the calendar, and until this week, the spirit of Spring has felt just beyond my grasp. But the snow has now melted in the garden and our tiny white crocus are blooming with sweet abandon. The air nearly feels soft, benevolent. Though we'll surely have a few more chilly nights ahead, the balance has shifted.

This year's Spring Getaway Kit focuses on renewal and revitalization, and includes facial care to revive skin after a long winter, as well as one of my very favorite bathing tools for the body, the handwoven ayate cloth, which has just the right gentle scrubbiness to encourage good circulation and a healthy Spring glow. A bright and floral tea blend and a beautiful chunk of fluorite, supportive of cleansing, clarity and intuition, complete the offering. As always, everything comes wrapped in a cotton drawstring bag, ready to tag along wherever your travels take you this season, even if it's only an hour or two behind a closed bathroom door.

Each season I take great pleasure in giving away a getaway kit to one of you, as a thank you for your support. I'm so grateful to be able to do this work, and to have gotten to know so many wonderful people in the process. To enter, please leave a comment on this post telling me about your favorite signs of spring in the plant world. Alternatively, you can enter over on Instagram by posting a photo of your favorite spring flora, mentioning @marbleandmilkweed, and using the tag #mmspringflora. I'll choose a winner at random on Wednesday, April 8th.

Update: Tulsi just helped me pick a winner, and it's @tksloane (who entered via Instagram). It's been such a pleasure seeing and hearing about all the signs of spring in your neck of the woods. Thanks so much to everyone who entered!

Sunday, March 1, 2015

We've returned from our trip to welcome a new month and today's lovely market at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. It's always a fairly big deal for me to pack things up for an event outside the studio, but today was worth it. Snow falling outside the beautiful glass atrium at the garden, a quiet taxi ride over the bridge amidst the flurries, and meeting new people (like Stephen, Irina and Kirsten, and many others), made it all worthwhile. Over the next few days I'll be catching up on orders made while I was away, and working on the forthcoming Spring Getaway Kits (yes, spring is nearly here!). Sincere gratitude to everyone who dropped by the shop this past week, I can't wait to have your little bit of plant magic on its way to you in the next few days!

We spent a few restful days on Sanibel Island with M.'s grandparents, as is our annual custom now, with his sister joining us from Michigan. It was also such a pleasure to take a day trip to see his mom's mom in Sarasota. Much of the travel we do at this stage in our lives is for the purpose of spending time with family members who live far away. M. and I are so fortunate to have many of our grandparents in good health, and we want to seize the day and spend as much time with them as we can. The time itself is such a gift.

Florida possesses so much natural beauty, but I feel that it has a dark side, too. Everyplace does, I suppose. I'm never quite sure how to describe this feeling, but I'm always drawn back to this song when I'm preparing to travel there. I'll let it speak for me, for now. We tried to spend more time walking on the beach during our trip this year. The weather was perfectly moody (my favorite kind of beach weather!), and there was never a lack of fascinating bits and pieces underfoot. We also stopped at our favorite little spot, The Sanibel Sprout, where Nikki crafts the most nourishing food on the island. If any of you do find yourselves on Sanibel, please be sure to stop by - and say hi from me!

I shared it on Instagram this past week, but in case you missed it, this poem was just the thing to read while spending time by the shore.

Sunday, February 22, 2015

I've been preparing for a few days away this week, this time for our annual winter visit to M.'s grandparents on Sanibel Island, Florida. A little escape could not possibly feel more timely, as yet another snowstorm passed through here overnight. February has been a slog this year with all these wickedly cold days alternating with messy slush. The thermostat on my space heater in the studio read 37 degrees when I arrived there on Friday morning. Can't help but feel a bit jealous of the West Coast, which seems to be barreling headlong toward springtime in a whirlwind of camellias and birdsong. But everything in its own time, I suppose. Meanwhile, this, this and plenty of tea are helping to get us through! Orders placed while I'm away will begin shipping on Monday, March 2nd. Thank you, as ever, for your patience.

I had the loveliest visitor at the studio on Friday, too. Carrie from Half Hitch Goods dropped by while she was in town from San Francisco, and we had the most wonderful chat over a cup of matcha. She is really committed to nurturing relationships with the artisans she works with, and it was refreshing to talk candidly about the challenges and the triumphs that come along with building a small business your own way.

I'll also be making a rare appearance outside the studio at Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Herb Day festivities, on Sunday, March 1st. You'll find me in the Atrium of the new visitors center from 10am-1pm with a selection of goods. Stephen Orr, author of The New American Herbal will also be giving a talk from 2-3pm and signing copies of his book. If you're in the area, I'd love for you to stop by and say hello!

Sunday, February 1, 2015

More snow on the way tonight. Serious hibernation feelings happening around here these days. I'm trying a slightly different heating configuration at the studio this winter, with mixed success. I'd like to think it's something that I could overcome by thinking warm thoughts, but the cold simply has me moving slower than usual. Such a natural thing, really. Mostly, I've been making it through these past few weeks knowing that there's a hot bath waiting for me at home. Cozy wishes to all!

a few things from this week:

// so honored to be mentioned in Amanda's musings on small batch beauty

Thursday, October 16, 2014

For me, the two sides of autumn will always feel a bit at odds. We're torn between the energy of shorter days that ask us to slow down, to gather and rest, and the intense uptick of activity in advance of the holidays. Things have been wonderfully lively around the studio, though I do feel myself dealing with just a touch of social-media burnout. I can't be the only one, right? It isn't so simple balancing the desire to connect with the incredible creative community that works and plays just beyond all these screens with the need for a moment (or more) of analog peace and quiet.

It's warm out tonight, and raining. I left the studio early to attend a bokashi composting workshop at a community garden on 12th Street. This method of recycling food waste uses microorganisms to ferment (or pickle) food scraps, which can then be added to the soil. It seems like an elegant process, one that makes so much sense, especially for city dwellers. Our compost area at 6&B is in serious need of attention and I'm going to be looking into a grant that would help us get the supplies we need to start using this method. With microbes making headlines in the most unfortunate of ways lately, consciously entering into a harmonious agreement with a few of them seems comforting, somehow. Ancient and life-affirming. In the rainy dark, mixing the starter ingredients together with our bare hands by the glow of a flashlight, my neighbors and I.

After the workshop, I walked home in the rain, feeling optimistic. I steamed up the house making a bowl of pasta with simple garlicky sauce from a basket of fresh tomatoes, wondering if they are the season's last.